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The Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Reims in the northern
French city of Reims, the episcopal church of the archdiocese of the
same name, is one of the most important Gothic church buildings in
France because of its seemingly uniform, balanced architecture and the
most extensive architectural features (mainly from the 13th century). In
Reims one finds the first fully developed tracery in history. The
architecture and sculpture of Reims Cathedral dominated the French
Gothic influence on the development of church architecture and sculpture
east of the Rhine since the 1220s. The cathedral is an important
historical place of remembrance not only of monarchical France. This is
where his kings were crowned, this is where Joan of Arc triumphed, this
is where German artillery shot down hundreds of the most important works
of art during the First World War and this is where de Gaulle and
Adenauer demonstrated Franco-German reconciliation in 1962.
The
cathedral has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991 and is
classified nationally as a monument historique. With around a million
visitors a year, it is one of the main attractions of Champagne.
The first church was built in the 5th century on the remains of
Gallo-Roman thermal baths. According to the legend created by
Archbishop Hinkmar of Reims, towards the end of the 5th century St.
Remigius, as bishop of Reims, baptized Clovis I, king of the Franks,
and anointed him with oil sent down from heaven. From this, the
archbishop of Reims derived the right to be able to crown and anoint
every new king of France in his cathedral. There has been an
important cathedral school since Carolingian times. The most famous
teacher was the mathematician Gerbert von Aurillac, others were the
founders of the Carthusians Bruno von Köln, Lotulf von Novara and
Alberich von Reims. From the 11th century to the revolution in the
18th century, French kings were crowned here, including Charles VII
in 1429 in the presence of Joan of Arc. The cathedral symbolized the
close connection between monarchy and church. Although the Third
Republic enforced the separation of church and state, Reims
Cathedral is emblematic of the French nation.
During the
French Revolution, Reims Cathedral suffered only minor damage. From
1860, the monument conservator Eugène Viollet-le-Duc directed
restoration work on the western façade. 1870 the church by Pope Pius
IX. made a minor basilica.
20th century
The cathedral was
badly damaged during the First World War, including the complete
destruction of the 15th-century wooden roof structure. After the
Battle of the Marne from September 5th to 12th, 1914, the German
troops retreated to fortified positions north of Reims, which they
were able to hold until 1918. The city, which had been occupied by
French soldiers on September 13, was shelled by German artillery
from these positions. A large part of the city center was destroyed
in the process, and the cathedral itself was hit again and again
from September 17 at the latest. On September 19, a total of 25
projectiles hit the building and initially set fire to the
scaffolding on the north tower. When it collapsed, it damaged the
sculptural decoration on the facade. The fire spread to the roof
structure, which burned out completely. The lead roof melted, and a
large part of the medieval glass windows were destroyed. From 1915
the facade was protected with sandbags, but until March 1918 it was
repeatedly the target of artillery fire. At the end of the war, the
building towered over the ruins of the city, badly damaged.
Because of its importance as a place of French political and
national identity and because of its architectural-historical
importance, the destruction of Reims Cathedral was extensively
commented on by war propaganda on both sides. The German army report
of September 22, 1914 justified the shelling of a French observation
post on a tower. The French and international press, on the other
hand, portrayed the destruction as an act of deliberate and
deliberate barbarism.
In the interwar period, the cathedral
was rebuilt from 1919 under the direction of Henri Deneux
(1874-1969), replacing the wooden roof structure with one made of
prefabricated concrete elements. The reconstruction received
financial support from the Rockefeller family. From 1927 the
cathedral was partially used again. On October 18, 1937, the
cathedral was reconsecrated; the French Prime Minister at the time,
Albert Lebrun, attended the high mass. After the Second World War,
Reims Cathedral also became a symbol of Franco-German friendship:
Against the background of the destruction in the First World War, it
was the site of a mass on July 8, 1962, at which President Charles
de Gaulle and Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer attended a
Demonstratively took part in the state visit. On the occasion of the
50th anniversary of this historic encounter, a meeting between
President François Hollande and Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel
took place there on July 8, 2012.
The names of the alleged first builders of the cathedral are given in
the famous labyrinth, which was destroyed in 1778 and was set into the
floor in the second half of the 13th century, but the wording of which
has not been reliably preserved. However, they hardly provide any clues
for the history of the building, because no other works can be connected
with these entries. Their order is also disputed; recent research
suggests the following order, which results from walking the path
pattern clockwise: Gaucher de Reims, Jean Loup, Jean d'Orbais, Bernard
de Soisson. Villard de Honnecourt must have visited the site around
1215/17, because one of his drawings faithfully reproduces only the
lower level of the choir, while the upper zones have not yet been
completed. After a devastating fire in 1210, intensive building activity
began as early as 1211. The short planning period strengthened the
suspicion that the fire had something to do with the intention of a new
building project. Further documentary data relevant to the early history
of the building are missing. Between 1233 and 1236, the archbishop and
cathedral chapter escaped from the city in the face of a rebellion by
the Reims citizenry; one expects a longer standstill of the construction
work in these years. After a consecration in 1241, the cathedral chapter
took over the choir (probably only its eastern parts) for use.
Already around 1220, perhaps when Jean Loup took over the management of
the construction, there must have been a change of plan. The intention
was to replace the entrance massif from the 12th century, which was
still in the area of what is now the westernmost nave bay, with a new
facade planned further to the west. This not only resulted in an
extension of the nave, but also an expansion of the transept to preserve
proportions. The lower layers of the nave and transept were built by
about 1230/35. Perhaps only after the completion of the upper parts of
the choir, transept and nave built between 1235 and 1250, which are
characterized by a desire for even more height, did the construction of
the new west facade begin, in which area the last houses were demolished
in 1252. It also reveals two planning phases, an older one, which
extends to the capitals above the figures in the draperies, and a later
one, in which the two rose windows already show rayonnant gothic
features and remained in effect until the construction work was
completed. When Philip the Handsome was crowned in 1286, the west
building was finished up to the height of the large rose window.
In 1311 the three-aisled basilica was completed with the exception of
the upper floors of the west towers and received its final lead roof.
During the Hundred Years' War (1337 to 1453), work progressed only
slowly. Another fire in 1481, which destroyed the roof and crossing
tower, put an end to plans to complete the towers.
Despite various changes in plan during the High Gothic construction period, which took up around the entire 13th century, the building appears at first glance to be a unified structure with an undisturbed sequence of its parts. The floor plan reads from east to west: five radially positioned chapels surround the ambulatory, whose structure system continues through the three-aisled transept with its slightly larger crossing into the nave. With its eight bays, plus the tower bay, the church reaches 138 meters inside, an unsurpassed length, the impression of which is further enhanced by the central nave width, which remains the same throughout west and east.
Reims was the coronation church of the French kingdom and for such national celebrations, of course, enough space had to be made for the ceremony and the dignitaries. In addition, the two front choir bays have five naves, with double aisles. The polygonal ambulatory, on which the radial chapels hang, is single-lane, continuing the side aisles of the three-aisled nave. It is only on a floor plan that one can see how sensitively the master builders designed some of the subtleties: The length of the yoke between the crossing and the polygonal choir is reduced in small steps in order to gradually adjust to the distance between the pillars in the choir. The tracery, the groundbreaking innovation in Reims, was first realized in the choir chapels built from 1211 onwards by joining two lancet windows with a rosette.
The outline of the high central nave follows the scheme of arcades –
triforium – clerestory that was preformed in Chartres and became classic
in French cathedral construction around 1200. The unwindowed triforium
with walkway separates the high central nave arcades from the clerestory
windows, which are fully lit. The cathedrals in Soisson and Chartres had
preceded this arrangement, but here the walls have given way once again
in favor of the mullioned windows. Just as the elements of the tracery
are subordinate to a unit, the profiles on the pillars and vaults are
also related to one another. The cantoned pillar surrounded by columns
is taken from Chartres, but in the crossing it has already been
developed into a bundle pillar, in which all the vault ribs are led down
to the base as profiled bars that rest on the pillars (so-called
"services") and thus the derivation of the give a visible expression to
the vault print.
The nave is illuminated in the west through the
new tracery windows and the glazed tympanum of the portal zone also
enables completely new lighting conditions. Even behind the lashes of
the portals, the wall was dissolved in glass, so that a middle band of
light was created here between the two roses. This is a precursor of the
glazed triforium that was developed a little later. Here we have the
fully developed High Gothic scheme before us, which will not change
significantly in France: three-zone wall construction, four-part
cross-ribbed vault and tracery window.
The facade is considered the classic example of French High Gothic
par excellence, and also the most dynamically balanced. It was built
from the middle of the 13th century (1252-1275). Here the motif from
Laon has been taken up again: a dominating center in the middle and a
powerful movement through the whole facade. The portal zones are far
forward and ciliated upwards, beyond the first story.
Also in the
portal zone, tracery replaces the tympanum, which was previously filled
with reliefs, a completely new idea that is of great importance for the
lighting of the interior space behind it. The rose window is the center
of this plastically and dynamically highly moving façade. This idea from
Reims was so successful at the time that the west facades of numerous
cathedrals were modified based on this model. Only the large wheel
window from Laon from the period after 1220 can in a certain way be
regarded as a forerunner.
As a counterweight to the mighty portal
floor and the rosette on the second floor, the crowning king's gallery
stretches around the entire tower floor. Her figures were originally
gilded.
The western towers have not been fully completed, and the
originally planned peaks have been left out. A crossing tower is
missing, only four implied arbor-shaped towers, which do not protrude
over the roof of the central nave, flank the central square on the side
aisles of the transept arms.
The most striking feature of the cathedral is its west facade, richly
decorated with figures. No other Gothic building has been so opulently
decorated inside and out with reliefs and sculptural decoration. Plastic
decoration surrounds the entire cathedral, right down to the flanks of
the buttresses and the tabernacles crowning them and the console heads,
which are so expressive in facial expressions. A comprehensive cycle of
figures is developed across three west portals, within which clearly
legible developments in High Gothic sculpture can be seen. Together with
the sculptures on the western inner wall, choir and transept, they form
the most extensive series of 13th-century sculptures in all of Europe.
On the style history of the Reimser sculptures
The large volume
of work involved in sculpting all parts of the building, changing
architects, changes in plans and the construction period that lasted for
decades meant that not only different sculptors worked on the cathedral,
but also their works often long after it had been completed were
transferred. Work began on the portal figures soon after the start of
construction, some of which had to wait decades before they were placed
on the west portal. The oldest sculptures can be found on the portals of
the north transept. They were erected when the new building had not
progressed far to the west, but a representative access to the choir
areas that were already in use was to be created. Around 1220 the row
Simeon to Moses, which was later added to the right west portal, was
also created. They are gigantic-looking, broad and powerfully
proportioned figures with large heads. Their tightly pleated draperies
are reminiscent of the north transept portals of Chartres, but in Reims
the figures begin to detach from the columns and a more varied play of
folds covers the less schematic figures. Nevertheless, by the time they
were moved, they had already been overtaken by a more modern development
in style and were therefore used in a less prominent position.
The figures carved by a troop of stonemasons from Amiens, who brought
with them a sharp-edged style of drapery with pointed bowl folds,
probably date from the early 1230s (some say only after the interdict
was lifted in 1241). These include the representation in the temple and
the Annunciation Mary at the central portal.
Again and again,
motifs have been noticed in the Reims sculptures that reveal a
connection with antique models. Whether this is based on direct
knowledge of Roman remains or mediation services via Mosan goldsmithing
must be decided on a case-by-case basis. The legacy of antiquity can be
seen particularly clearly in the famous Visitation group (also around
1230-35) in the central portal. But we shouldn't be talking about a
"Reimser classicism", the expression and feeling in the interaction of
the figures are designed entirely from the spirit of the Middle Ages.
The protagonists of a late group of sculptures, indisputably made around
the middle of the 13th century, are Joseph from the central portal and
the Smiling Angel on the left portal.
Clamped between two flying buttresses, and therefore placed under a pointed-arched barrel without the usual beveling of the robes, six apostles flank the blessing Trumeau Christ in front of the left portal opening, which is walled up today. He lost his head in 1914 as a result of German shelling. The tympanum depicts the Last Judgment, below the seated Judge of the World the resurrected, saved and damned populate the three-striped pictorial narrative. The portal is recently dated around 1210/15 otherwise around 1230.
The portal in the middle, also known as the Calixtus or Sixtus
portal, gathers the most important local saints from Reims. Calixtus I
in papal regalia is standing on the pillar of the trumeau. The draped
portal with six figures shows St. Nicasius of Reims between his sister
and an angel on the left; on the right side of the robe St. Remigius of
Reims between an angel and another saint.
In the tympanum, the lower
strip describes Nicasius legends, in the second and fourth strips
miracles from the Remigius-Vita, in the third register the story of Job
is inserted. About 1225-1230.
On the far right, the most westerly portal, also known as porta preziosa, shows a Madonna seated in front of the smooth Typmanon surface under an archway with angels and a soul carried up on her head, crowned by the hand of God. The iconography and monument type suggest that the remains of a niche tombstone from around 1180, taken from the previous building that burned down, were used again in the first half of the 13th century to decorate the relatively small gate.
While previous cathedrals often place the Last Judgment in the middle
of the west portal, the Mother of God is the central theme here,
although the coronation of the Virgin Mary had to be pushed back because
of the glazing of the tympanum (modern copy, original parts in the
museum). The archivolts were largely renewed in 1612. Madonna on the
Trumeau from around 1250. The figures in the robes refer to the
childhood of Jesus.
Right robe: the pair on the left represents
the Annunciation, the group on the right represents the so-called
Visitation, i.e. the meeting of the two women Maria and Elisabeth who
are expecting a child. Especially the face of Maria, the second figure
from the right, has the clarity, the nobility and the large areas of
antique female figures. The treatment of the robes is also more
reminiscent of Greco-Roman sculpture than the more traditional figures
on the left side of the robe. The figures were made in the early 1230s
for a differently planned portal on the west façade, which was later
demolished, but were only moved to the new west complex around the
middle of the century, in line with the progress of construction.
Left robe: Finer differences can also be seen in the left robe. The
scene of the offering in the temple of the two central figures reveals
different views than those of the side figures. The statues come from
two workshops, but none from the workshop that produced the Visitation
group. Mary and Simeon in the center are little moved and have a calm,
collected expression; they are among the sculptures influenced from
Amiens
In the powerfully built heads, simple, not particularly
individual traits prevail, which correspond to a given type. The thick
fabrics lie on the upper bodies in large, smooth areas, while they fall
from the arms in heavy folds, forming deep valleys and fully plastically
arched ridges, capturing space and shadows. These people are neither
idealized in the classical sense, as in the case of the Visitation, nor
escalated in a visionary or dramatic way, but down-to-earth, human and
popular, but endowed with dignity through their measuredness.
The
master who carved Joseph next to Maria and Hannah next to Simeon on the
far left is completely different. Bodies are leaner and begin to sway in
the hips, twist the shoulders, and lose stability. The slender, fine
little heads sit flexibly on thin necks. Since the fabric-rich and
fold-rich robes no longer have any proper support, the sweeping curves
and puffs acquire their own liveliness.
Here a view becomes
recognizable that suggests a different attitude to life and is sometimes
described in the literature as disembodiment, sometimes as preciousness.
No longer the harmonious balance of physicality and inspiration as in
the middle group is wanted, but one that leads to greater elegance in
the further development. In any case, the phase of classical sculpture
in the first half of the century has passed. Since similar tendencies
can be seen in Parisian works from around 1245–55, this appointment can
also be reconciled with the structural completion of the western facade.
The left west portal is christologically determined. The crucifixion in the gable, the temptation of Christ in the archivolts at the bottom left, above it scenes from the Passion that culminate in the wimperg with the crucifixion. The right archivolts have been renewed.
Compared to Chartres, the statues on the right-hand robe have been
liberated from the column in every sense and become autonomous so that
they can relate to one another. The bodies are powerful moving masses
with broad shoulders and powerful limbs, the heads large and heavy. They
were written about three decades before her transfer.
Overview of
the figures on the wall of the west facade
The three following
schemes of the western garment figures are intended to offer both a
thematic and iconographic overview and, by indicating the presumed times
of origin, to facilitate a stylistic-historical grouping of the works
from different phases. Listed from left to right.
After the western portals were completed, the pace of construction slowed down. The rose storeys and western nave tabernacles must have been built in the 1260s, the royal gallery below the tower storeys only in the 14th century. At its center is the baptism of Clovis. Here, then, reference is clearly made to the royal succession of the Frankish kingdom. The preceding royal figures on the buttresses of both transept facades are more significant in terms of stylistic history. 14 statues were placed individually in tabernacles around 1230-1240 at the height of the rose window. They are related to a biblical program.
To the side of the windowed portal arch, the inner west wall is divided into a regular grid of seven storeys and 50 uniform, rectangularly framed niches in which stand individual figures, who, however, usually interact with one another in the neighboring niche. The left half contains scenes from the life of Mary, the right side tells the story of John the Baptist, who was also the patron saint of stonemasons. The sculptures were made around 1250-60, at the same time as or immediately after the last jamb statues of the portals outside.
The capital zone of the pillars in the interior is extensively expanded in Reims. First of all, the capital zone of a bundle pillar indicates that the upper part of the two-zone structure forms a continuous band. Here the two-zone structure is only present in the presented ¾-columns, but the capital height is already the same. In the final stage of this development, the mother column and the columns in front of it are connected by a continuous band of capitals.
Before the First World War, the cathedral still had numerous original 13th-century stained glass windows in the higher sections of the central nave, in the choir and in the transept. Some were of documentary value, as well as decorative and religious, depicting parts of the cathedral's history. The windows destroyed in the war were initially given emergency windows made of colorless glass during the reconstruction. In the decades that followed, the cathedral gradually received new windows designed by contemporary artists: in the 1930s, the small rose above the main portal of the west facade was renewed, as were the bays of the side portals and the rose window of the south arm of the transept. In 1974, Marc Chagall designed three windows for the axis chapel of the choir: they depict the Root of Jesse, the two testaments and important events in the history of Reims. Other windows were designed by Brigitte Simon, Tsuguharu Foujita and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. In 2011, on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the cathedral's consecration, six windows in the apse, designed by the German artist Imi Knoebel after Gerhard Richter refused the commission, were inaugurated. The last three windows in the Joan of Arc Chapel, also designed by Imi Knoebel, that had had emergency glazing since the 1914 bombing were installed in May 2015. In contrast to most of the cathedral's other stained glass windows, Knoebel's windows are abstract and painted in strong primary colors. Its fragmented composition refers to the devastation caused by the fighting and can be understood as an indication of the resulting disruption in Franco-German relations. On the other hand, when the new windows were inaugurated, their symbolic importance for Franco-German friendship was emphasized.
The history of organs dates back to 1489, when the first, probably
single-manual, instrument was installed. This instrument has been
extended and rebuilt several times over the course of time, and the
organ case has also been changed several times.
Today's organ was
built in 1937-1938 by the organ builder Victor Gonzales. The instrument
has 86 registers on four manuals and pedal. Some of the pipes from the
17th to 19th centuries are still preserved in this instrument.
Around 1360, Guillaume de Machaut composed his Messe de Nostre Dame
at Reims Cathedral, the oldest complete setting of the Ordinary Mass by
a single composer.
The labyrinth on the floor of the cathedral,
destroyed in 1778, served as a template for the symbol (see
illustration) used to mark a monument historique in France.
Every
year in summer, after dark, the "Regalia" takes place, a sound and light
show that sets the scene for the facade of the cathedral.